Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-21
fairness, You were almost killed
with the dnmestic calamitv

with the domestic calamity. A
few formal, perfunctory words
OF consolation were uttered on the stairs
before you went to the grave; but you
wanted some one to come and talk over
the whole matter, and reCite the allevia-
tiOns, and decipher the lessons of the
dark bereavement. No one came. Many
time you could not sleep until 2 or 3
O'Clock in the morning, and then your
sleep was g troubled dream, in which
was re-enacted all the scene of sickness,
and parting, and dissolution. On, what
| days aud nights they were! No man
seemed to care for your soul.
There was another occasion when your
heart was very susceptible. There was
great awakening There were hundreds
of people who pressed into the kingdom
of Cod; some OF them gcquaint-
aUces, some business associates,
yes, perhaps some members of
your own family were baptized by
sprinkling or immersion. Christian peo-
pie thought of you and they called at
your store, but you were out on business.
They stopped at your house; you had
gone around to spend the evening. They
sent kindly mesS4g to you; somehow,
by accident, you did not get it. The life
boat of the Gospel swept through the
surf and everybody seemed to get in but
you. Everything seemed to escape you.
One touch of personal sympathy would
have pushed you into the kingdom Of God.
When on COmmunion-day your friends
went in and your sons and daughters
went into the church, you buried your
face in your handkerchief and sobbed:
''Why am l left out? Everybody seems
to get saved but me. No man cares for
my soul"
Hearken to revelation | have to make.
It is a startling statement. 1t will so
surprise you that | must prove it as | 90
on. Instead of this total Indifference all
about you, in regard to your soul, have
to tell you that heaven, earth and hell
are after your immortal spirit. Earth
to cheat it. He'll to destroy it.
Heaven to redeem it. Although
you may be stranger to the Christians
in this house, their faces would glow and
their hearts would bound if they saw
you make one step heaven ward. SO in
triCate and far-reaChing is this web of
sympathy that could by one word rouse
great many prayers in your behalf. No
one care for your soul! Why, one signal
Of distress on your part would thrill this
audience with holy excitement. If boat
il any harbor should gel in distress,
from the men of war, and from the slOOp,
and from the steamers, the flying paddles
would pull to the rescue. And if NV,
you would lift one signal of distress, all
these vOyagers of eternity would bear
down toward you end bring you relief.
But no. You are like ship on fire at
sea. They keep the matches down,
and the captain is frenzied, and he
gives orders that no one hail the passing
ships. He says: ~ shall either land
this vessel in Hamburg or on the bottom
If the ocean, and l don't care which"
YOnder is ship of the White Star Line
passing. Yonder one of the National Line.
Yonder one of the Cunard Line. Yonder
one of the Inman Line. But they know
not there is any calamity happening on
that one vessel. Oh! if the captain would
only put his trumpet to his lip and cry
out: "LOWer your boats! Bear down
this way! We are burning up! Fire!
Fre!" No. No. No signal is given. If
that vessel perishes, having hailed no one,
whose fault will it be? Will it be the
fault Of the ship that hid its calamity, or
will 1t be the fault of the vessels that,
passing on the high seas, wOnld have
been glad to furnish relief if it had been
only asked? In other words, my brother,
if you miss heaven it will be your own
fault.
No one care for your soul? Why, in all
the ages there have been men whose en-
tire busiGess was sOul-savlng. In this
work Munson went down under the
knives OF the csnniDals whom he had come
to save, and Robert McCheyne preached
hims elf to death by thirty years of age,
and John Bunvan was thrown Into dun
geOn in BedfOrdshire, and JehGdi Ashman
endured ali the malarias of the African
jungle; and there are hundreds end thous-
ands IF Christian men and women new
VINO are praying, tolling, preaching, hv-
ing, dying to save souls.
No one care for your soul? Have you
heard how Christ feels about it? | know
ii was only five or six miles fromBethlehem
to Ca!vary-the birth place the and death
place of ChrIst-but who can tell how many
miles it was from the throne to the man
ger? How many miles down-how many
miles back again. The place of His de-
parture was the focus Of all splendor aud
pOmp; all the thrones facing His throne;
His name the chorus in
very song and the inscription
on ever banner; His landing place
Cattle-pen, malOdorOus with unWashed
brutes, and dogs growing in and out of
the stable. Born of weary mother who
had jOurneyed eighty miles in severe I'M
health that she might find the right place
for the Lords nativity-born, not as
other princes, under the flash of g chan
delier, but under lantern swung by a
rope TO the roof of the barn. In that
place Christ started to save you. Your
name, your face, your time, your eternity,
in Cbrist's mind. Sometimes travelling
on mules back to escape old Herod's
massacer, sometimes attempting nervous
sleep on the chilly hillside, sometimes
earning his breakfast by the carpentry of
a plough. In Quarantanis the stones of
the field, by their shape and color, look
ing like the loaves Of bread, tantalizing
his hunger. Yet all the time keeping on
after you. With drenched coat treading
the surf or Genessaret. HoWled after by
bIood-thirsty mob. Denounced
as drunkard. Mourning over
a doomed city, while others
shouted at the sight of the shimmering
towers. All the time coming on and
coming on to save you. Indicted as be-
ing traitor against government, per-
Jured witnesses swearing their souls
away to insure his butchery. Elogged, spit /